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Birthday boy and girl!
I did not get a chance to post a blog yesterday because we were so busy celebrating Gary's birthday! Hopefully, I will get a chance to post another tonight once we have finished celebrating Barbara's 70th which is TODAY!!! They now have four balloons outside their bedroom door as well as happy birthday cards and posters from princess.
I am managing to avoid the balloons by only approaching Barbara and Gary's cabin via our balcony!
We had a very good day yesterday, beginning with a trip to the gym (gary david and myself) and then.......we WON the morning trivia!!!! Yayyyyy! It felt good to be back to winning ways.
Barbara was ecstatic, especially seeing as she wanted to miss the quiz to go and eat breakfast! A late lunch followed and then time for David and I to get into the water. I feel as though I always go on about kids on board but meh, I have to mention this. We walked down to the adult pool and it was full....FULL of screaming little bratlings aged from about five to fifteen. There were several bemused looking adults sitting around on the steps and chairs and no one seemed willing to take a stand. I could hear people muttering about it being an adult pool so I found a dude with stripes on his shoulders and he confirmed that it was.
So i told him to sort it out....and he did.
But one family kicked up such a fuss that it just did not feel fun being in there any more. This dude was yelling "adults have the sanctury pool too!!" I was saying.....you have TWO, very large pools, in the middle of the ship. You CHOOSE to bring your kids on holiday well thats great....but you pay the price in that you cannot just sit where you want (In a quiet area right at the aft) and let your kids run riot. By bringing your kids, you now have to sit with the two hundred other kids in the family pool....tough cheese! They all left after that and loads of adults, mostly quite elderly, got in and thanked me too. But it should not be down to me! Princess ought to be on top of it and not make me seem like the villain.
Anywayyyyyyyyy.....the rude man gave me a thought.... what is this sanctuary pool he was rattling on about?! So we went and took a look... The Sanctuary is an adult only area on the ship where you can get massages, facials etc and it has an exclusive sun bed area which you pay for. what we did NOT know is that is also has a large.....OVER 21 only pool WITH TWO HOT TUBS!!
Best yet.....this is free to use and not part of the paid Lotus Spa environment. All Princess cruises have this area but we had no idea we could use that pool. David and I felt as though we had gone to heaven. The pool was gorgeous and cool, the hot tubs nice and hot. Gary and Barbara had a sunbed each and were happy to doze away the afternoon. We won't be returning to the aft adult pool this cruise.
That brings me nicely on to the weather. It is GORGEOUS now. Blue skies, not a cloud in sight and the sea is like a pond. I am so happy, mostly for Barbara, because her biggest fear was being sea sick. Even she cannot believe how calm it is. In the evening yesterday was our first formal night. Everyone in our party dressed up and looked the biz! We watched the champagne waterfall and then, David, enjoyed numerous free glasses of champagne afterwards!
Gary seemed to enjoy his birthday very much and he thanks everyone for his cards. In the evening, we went for a proper sit down meal in one of the restaurants. It was really nice and, as a surprise, our head waitress sang happy birthday to gary and presented him with a very large chunk of chocolate cake. This was on TOP of the pudding he had already eaten. In the end, we had to cut it into four pieces and help him out with it. :-)
David saw a whale yesterday off the....uh, port or starboard sides! He said he could see the blow holes but not the beasts themselves but still, pretty exciting. Barbara and Gary were on the balcony with us and we all then spotted some dolphins jumping around in the sea just at the back of the ship. That is one of the benefits of an aft facing balcony cabin!
Last night, after the olds retired to their beds, David and I went to the night club "SKYWALKERS"
it was really good fun, again no kids! and we stayed there 'til gone 1am. Art about 3am I was woken by the sound of Barbara's, ever so quiet, voice ringing out from the balcony on their cabin. I almost fell out of bed in my rush because I thought maybe something was wrong! David and I walked out onto our balcony and were met by Gary and Barbara, also in their jammies, pointing out to us that we were travelling through the Straights of Gibraltar.
On our left as we looked out was the North coast of Africa and on our right, Gibraltar. (I think I have that right, but whilst I am typing this they are all on the balcony sipping beers or something) It was a wonderful sight and well worth being woken up for!Although it was still dark, the coast line was lit up like a Christmas tree. Then, to top it all, we saw two shooting stars. Well.....one was a shooting star and one was likely a large moth or firefly! But it was beautiful anyway. Barbara then pointed out that it was now HER birthday!
We went back to bed anyway and so far today we have not won the quiz, Barbara has opened her cards and got some flowers from our room steward Piotr and then we went to the Sanctuary pool where David and I swam and Gary and Barbara sat drinking Mohito cocktails.
In the early afternoon!!! Outrageous.Tonight we are going for another sit down meal in one of the very posh restaurants. I will post another update with photos of our meal for Barbara's birthday later on tonight!Oh!! I forgot one other thing.....
There is an exclusive jewelley shop on board....there always is......On day one, I did my usual wandering around in awe of the gorgeous stones and rings on display. Then one caught my eye....an amazing blue diamond with six white diamonds surrounding it. All on a 14 carat white gold ring. The sales dude insisted I try it on and then, once I had truly fallen in love with it, he told me the price! I could hardly get it off my finger fast enough lol.For the next two nights I snuck down to the store just to take a look at it again. I told the others I was popping to the loo lol. I finally had to come clean when Barbara thought that I might be ill :-DWell....last night, the ring became mine. I could cry it is so so so so SO beautiful. I keep looking at it and can't believe it is actually on my finger! Barbara is taking Gary to the same store later today. :-)
sorry about the spelling mistakes. I can't spell check until i go online and i am not wasting internet minutes on spellcheck!!
- comments
Mum Just beautiful Karen. Take good care of it xxxx
Christine Looking sharp you two